Exploring our Neighborhood

When we initially began looking for apartments in Singapore, our agent focused our search on the East Coast area, near the East Coast Park. While we liked the park and general location, the apartment we found was a bit distant from restaurants and stores and required taking a condo shuttle bus to reach the key shopping areas. Then fortune came to our aid and I had to break our contract on the apartment due to mold issues that were discovered. This allowed us to re-think our focus area and what was really important to us.

Since Sharo will be homeschooling Nancy and we will not have a car, location and ease of getting around are the two most important considerations for me. Somehow, I allowed this to fall out of perspective and I was getting us into an apartment where the main concern was my commute time. After reconsidering the importance of my commute time in relation to other higher priorities, I re-focused our apartment search in the Pasir Ris area of Singapore.

Pasir Ris sits on the far east side of Singapore, in fact, our apartment sits as far east as one can go without living in the Pasir Ris Park. Within a 12 minute walk at flip-flop pace from our apartment, we have at our disposal the Downtown East neighborhood – complete with bowling alley, movie theater, grocery store, Wild Wild Wet water park, and an array of eateries that will meet the desires of almost any palate.

Even more exciting than the bowling alley is Pasir Ris Park. Sitting a two minute walk from our condo, I fully expect to take advantage of this beautiful park which is one of the largest coastal parks in Singapore. Pasir Ris Park occupies 71 hectares of land and includes a mangrove forest, playgrounds, restaurants, BBQ pits, a bike trail, a walking/jogging path, and hectares of grass for playing pretty much any game you want. I have barely started to discover this park – a bike ride over the weekend, and tonight a 5k jog along the lighted running path – and am excited to spend time exploring all the park has to offer with my family.

Have you ever visited Pasir Ris Park? If so, what is your favorite activity? What have I yet to discover?